Weight gain when you increase mileage or intensity is absolutely normal! This is not caused by muscle gain, (It takes months/years to gain a lot of muscle, not days or weeks) but water retention! This is normal, and will ease off as your body adapts to the new demands you're placing with.

I also want to echo what others are saying... 1500 calories is NOT an obscene amount of food, and for an exercise program as intense as insanity, YES, you need that much to support that level of exercise, or else you're short-changing your metabolism and slowing it down in the long run.

Many runners gain weight when they increase their milage; I know I do. I like to mix up my workouts more now and run less. Walking, weight training, circuit training, yoga, pilates, etc, are all options I enjoy and have benefited from.

Insanity requires way more than 1250 calories. You're doing more harm than good if you're eating that little and exercising that much. Do you know how many calories you typically burn per week doing Insanity? If you haven't already, invest in a good heart rate monitor (with a chest strap), figure out how many calories (on average) you burn per week, update your fitness goals, and your nutrition tracker should fix itself to reflect your physical activity.

I hadn't heard of this before so I looked it up. It's pretty hard core and it does say that, to get results, you have to follow the "nutrition plan" as well. Overall it got pretty high reviews from people who were at an advanced level, though they did say it was extraordinaly challenging. Obviously I have never done it but I did find this interesting: Check out the before and after pictures of this guy:

http://blog.ultimatefitnessgear.com/2010/02/03/does-the-insanity-workout-work/ I don't see results in this photo that can't be obtained in other ways.

I am also 5' 6" and, if I were working out that much I would need to eat more than 1,200 calories. Even if you lost weight at that calories level (and you certainly would) you would never be able to sustain it. Good luck and please let us know what you think of the Insanity workout!

If you stick around the 1250 mark, you are eating too little for what you are doing. The 1500 calories would be more the mark. Some people (a LOT of people) make the big mistake in thinking that less is better. 1200 calories might be o.k. for you if you were sedentary, but you aren't. When a person does extra activities like you are doing, then you NEED to eat more!

Are you wanting to lose weight? At your height, your weight is already healthy.

As far as gaining weight with the running, it is quite possible. Your body will be retaining extra fluid for a while until it is properly used to the changes. This will reflect in places like around your abdomen and your feet. The other thing to consider is your age! You are at a time when many women are going through hormone changes whether they realize it or not!

I have been doing Insanity on and off mixing it up with my running. I am 43, 5ft 6 and currently weigh 141. I did WW before and got down to 130 but seemed to gain weight with running and don't say it's muscle because my jeans are TIGHT!! With WW, I feel you really don't eat alot of calories and now Insanity is telling me that I need to eat about 1500 calories a day....to be honest I'm really freaking out mentally to eat that much! I plan to follow the Insanity workout plan and do it 6x a day and maybe get in a small run in here or there. HELP!!! Should I follow the Insanity eating plan exactly to see a difference or I was thinking of definitely eating 5x a day but maybe eating 250 calories per meal to total 1250 a day....any advice out there??? Thanks in advance!! :-)

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